You sexy thing (Ben Liebrand remix) - Hot Chocolate

'You sexy thing' was originally a hit for Hot Chocolate in 1975. Dutch DJ Ben Liebrand, who already made a career for himself remixing tracks for Dutch radio and also for record releases, took on the task of remixing the track for a 1987 single release. His effort didn't go by unnoticed: the single reached number 10 in the UK singles chart.

When the original version of 'You sexy thing' was re-released in 1997 and reached number 6 in the UK singles chart, the track became the only Hot Chocolate track to become a top 10 hit in the Seventies, the Eighties and the Nineties. It's almost a shame the song didn't achieve this once again in the Noughties.

My collection: 7" single no. 4797
Found: Record fair, Utrecht, April 10, 2010
Cost: 0,5 euro
Tracks: 'You sexy thing (Ben Liebrand remix)' / 'Every 1's a winner'

You sexy thing - Hot Chocolate

Frankly, I was very surprised when I played this single for the first time after buying it. Everyone knows Hot Chocolate's 'You sexy thing', with the near-falsetto lead vocals by Errol Brown. But this version of the song sounds very different. So what happened? You tell me, I couldn't find any information about it on the web.

'You sexy thing' was released in the autumn of 1975 and reached number 5 in the Dutch Top 40 and number 2 in the UK singles chart.

My collection: 7" single no. 4773
Found: Record fair, Utrecht, April 10, 2010
Cost: 0,5 euro
Tracks: 'You sexy thing' / 'A warm smile'

Oh ja (live) - Clouseau

It's a familiar story: a band signs with a record company, has some success, leaves the record company and signs with another one, and the previous record company tries to milk the success to the very last drop. It's no different with Clouseau: when they left HKM music to sign with EMI, HKM released a live album to try and get some extra money in.

To promote the live album - which reached number 10 in the Dutch albums chart - a single was also released: a live version of 'Oh ja' ('Oh yes'), which failed to reach the chart.

My collection: 7" single no. 2234
Found: Record fair, January 21, 1995
Cost: 2 guilders
Tracks: 'Oh ja (live)' / 'Ik wil vannacht bij je slapen (live)'

Ik wil vannacht bij je slapen - Clouseau

Well, at least they don't beat around the bush. 'Ik wil vannacht bij je slapen' ('I want to sleep with you tonight') was released in February 1991 as the third single from Clouseau's second album, a title that leaves nothing to the imagination.

The appreciation for this single was almost identical in Belgium and the Netherlands, where the single peaked at number 27 and 28 respectively.

My collection: 7" single no. 1402
Found: Free Record Shop, Den Haag, March 16, 1991
Cost: 6 guilders
Tracks: 'Ik wil vannacht bij je slapen' / 'Oh ja'

La, la, la - Joan Manuel Serrat

Joan Manuel Serrat was born on December 27, 1943. He started his career in music in the early Sixties, first as a member of a pop band in school, and after 1965 as a solo artist.

In 1968, Spain chose Serrat to represent the country in the Eurovision Song Contest. He would sing the song 'La, la, la'. After he asked to sing it in Catalan, the Spanish authorities didn't agree. At the time, the dictator Francisco Franco was repressing the Catalan language. Defiantly, Serrat refused to sing the Spanish-language version, and was hurriedly replaced by Massiel, who went on to win the contest with her Spanish-language interpretation. A recording of Serrat's version of 'La, la, la' still exists on this single, a souvenir of a Eurovision performance that never came to be.

My collection: 7" single no. 4821
Found: Record fair, Utrecht, April 10, 2010
Cost: 5 euro
Tracks: 'La, la, la' / 'Mis gaviotas'

Cloudbusting - Kate Bush

Kate Bush wrote the song 'Cloudbusting' after she read the book 'A book of dreams', published in 1973. The book was written by Peter Reich, son of psychologist Wilhelm Reich, about his father's arrest and imprisonment through the eyes of himself as a young boy. Wilhelm Reich is the inventor of the 'cloudbuster', a rain machine that looks very much like the machine that is pictured on the cover of this single. It's an extraordinary book, which was re-released as a result of the success of this song. I bought it, and I still recommend it to everyone who loves this song.

The music video, in which Kate plays Peter and Donald Sutherland plays Wilhelm, retells the story in short and made quite an impression at the time. The single fared pretty well as a result: it reached number 20 in the UK singles chart and number 11 in the Dutch Top 40. The American single, released in 1986 in conjunction with the greatest hits compilation 'The whole story', has a different B-side. I bought it four years after its release.

My collection: 7" single no. 370 / no. 1344
Found: LP Top 100, Den Haag, 1985 / London, October 18, 1990
Cost: 6 guilders / 2 pounds
Tracks (no. 370): 'Cloudbusting' / 'Burning bridge'
Tracks (no. 1344): 'Cloudbusting' / 'The man with the child in his eyes'

Tell me where it hurts - Garbage

I don't have a lot of Garbage singles, and that's partly because most of their singles were not released on 7" vinyl. And when they were, they are often exceedingly expensive. But I got lucky: I found this 2007 single at a bargain price.

'Tell me where it hurts' was released on white vinyl in 2007. It was a new track on the compilation album 'Absolute Garbage', released while the band were on hiatus. This song was recorded after the band hadn't worked together for eighteen months. It was written around a string arrangement by the band coupled with newly written lyrics and a title that vocalist Manson had come up with a few years prior. Released as a single, it reached number 50 in the UK singles chart.

My collection: 7" single no. 4820
Found: Record fair, Utrecht, April 10, 2010
Cost: 1 euro
Tracks: 'Tell me where it hurts' / 'Bad boyfriend (Sting like a bee remix)'